Open Forum

Original Message------

Next year, for the first time in my career, it looks like I'll have a high school drama I class made up almost entirely of black students (who seemed to have signed up en masse after having me in English class this past year). These are kids who have never been on stage or in a drama class before. So exciting!

 

Though almost everything I normally use for scene study would work fine with this group, I'm wondering if any of you can suggest plays that resonated with your black students in particular. 

Of course, we will look at August Wilson and at A Raisin in the Sun, but what's new? What's really hitting home with your black students these days?

Thanks!

---

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My suggestions:

Lynn Nottage - Intimate Apparel, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, by the Way, Meet Vera Stark 
August Wilson - Radio Golf and The Piano Lesson (maybe Fences - but with the movie out last year they may think they know it)

I too agree the suggestion with Clyborne Park by Bruce Norris, but I don't think that Raisin in the Sun is a bad choice either (unless it is read in English class already.) I directed the show a few year ago and my students thanked me for the opportunity to perform such an important piece of theatre.

One play that you may not know, I just saw over in London, Leave Taking by Winsome Pinnock.  It is an English story about the Windrush generation (Caribbean immigrants who were encouraged to come to the UK to fill the empty jobs left after World War II).  I plan to read it with my students this year. I think that they will identify with it because it is the story of a single mother raising her teenage daughters in the 1980s. Nick Hern Books | Leave Taking By Winsome Pinnock

Nick Hern Books		remove preview
Nick Hern Books | Leave Taking By Winsome Pinnock Leave Taking View this on Nick Hern Books >

Break a leg - I would be great if you follow up and let us know which ones your students responded to the most!

------------------------------
Marla Blasko
Director/Teacher Theatre Arts
Long Reach High School
Columbia, Maryland
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 06-26-2018 08:21
From: Douglas Erwin
Subject: scenes/plays for novice black actors

Do NOT do Raisin in the Sun. It's overdone and dated for most kids of color. It also screams "I'm a white person with no knowledge of plays about the Black experience".  If you want to contrast it with Clydborne Park, that's a bit different.  Instead look at Lynn Nottage or Dael Orlandersmith. August Wilson is fine, but slightly overdone.  My intro classes like him but my upper levels avoid him for scene study. 

Original Message------

Next year, for the first time in my career, it looks like I'll have a high school drama I class made up almost entirely of black students (who seemed to have signed up en masse after having me in English class this past year). These are kids who have never been on stage or in a drama class before. So exciting!

 

Though almost everything I normally use for scene study would work fine with this group, I'm wondering if any of you can suggest plays that resonated with your black students in particular. 

Of course, we will look at August Wilson and at A Raisin in the Sun, but what's new? What's really hitting home with your black students these days?

Thanks!

---

This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited.

Oh my goodness, Dominique Morisseau for sure. I haven't read all of her work, but I've loved what I've experienced so far. Blood At the Root is marvelous (particuarly for high school students), and so are Paradise Blue, Pipeline, and Skeleton Crew. Add her to your list- you won't be sorry.

------------------------------
Becca Lillias
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 06-26-2018 09:44
From: Marla Blasko
Subject: scenes/plays for novice black actors

My suggestions:

Lynn Nottage - Intimate Apparel, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, by the Way, Meet Vera Stark 
August Wilson - Radio Golf and The Piano Lesson (maybe Fences - but with the movie out last year they may think they know it)

I too agree the suggestion with Clyborne Park by Bruce Norris, but I don't think that Raisin in the Sun is a bad choice either (unless it is read in English class already.) I directed the show a few year ago and my students thanked me for the opportunity to perform such an important piece of theatre.

One play that you may not know, I just saw over in London, Leave Taking by Winsome Pinnock.  It is an English story about the Windrush generation (Caribbean immigrants who were encouraged to come to the UK to fill the empty jobs left after World War II).  I plan to read it with my students this year. I think that they will identify with it because it is the story of a single mother raising her teenage daughters in the 1980s. Nick Hern Books | Leave Taking By Winsome Pinnock

Nick Hern Books		remove preview
Nick Hern Books | Leave Taking By Winsome Pinnock Leave Taking View this on Nick Hern Books >

Break a leg - I would be great if you follow up and let us know which ones your students responded to the most!

------------------------------
Marla Blasko
Director/Teacher Theatre Arts
Long Reach High School
Columbia, Maryland

Original Message:
Sent: 06-26-2018 08:21
From: Douglas Erwin
Subject: scenes/plays for novice black actors

Do NOT do Raisin in the Sun. It's overdone and dated for most kids of color. It also screams "I'm a white person with no knowledge of plays about the Black experience".  If you want to contrast it with Clydborne Park, that's a bit different.  Instead look at Lynn Nottage or Dael Orlandersmith. August Wilson is fine, but slightly overdone.  My intro classes like him but my upper levels avoid him for scene study. 

Original Message------

Next year, for the first time in my career, it looks like I'll have a high school drama I class made up almost entirely of black students (who seemed to have signed up en masse after having me in English class this past year). These are kids who have never been on stage or in a drama class before. So exciting!

 

Though almost everything I normally use for scene study would work fine with this group, I'm wondering if any of you can suggest plays that resonated with your black students in particular. 

Of course, we will look at August Wilson and at A Raisin in the Sun, but what's new? What's really hitting home with your black students these days?

Thanks!

---

This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited.

I agree with these suggestions. I also would look at okays by Pearl Cleage, Chisa Hutchinson, Kia Corthron, and Terrell Alvin McRaney.

------------------------------
William Addis
Chair of Visual and Performing Arts
Westtown School
West Chester PA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 06-25-2018 07:20
From: Heather Damron
Subject: scenes/plays for novice black actors

Next year, for the first time in my career, it looks like I'll have a high school drama I class made up almost entirely of black students (who seemed to have signed up en masse after having me in English class this past year). These are kids who have never been on stage or in a drama class before. So exciting!

 

Though almost everything I normally use for scene study would work fine with this group, I'm wondering if any of you can suggest plays that resonated with your black students in particular. 

Of course, we will look at August Wilson and at A Raisin in the Sun, but what's new? What's really hitting home with your black students these days?

Thanks!

---

This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited.

If they're for scene study and not for public presentation (as I'm not sure if you get past community standards), there's an absolute trove of scenes/plays and such. 

There's a wonderful short play, I think The Basement at the Bottom of the End of the World (??) between a white guy and a black woman, which is by turns funny, pointed and aggressive.

TopDog/Underdog is a pretty good source for study.

My Manãna Comes is a play with black and Hispanic characters, which is pretty intense.

Chad Deity (The Elaborate Entrance of...) is potentially fun. 

Any Lynn Nottage. Clybourne Park is excellent. Last Days of Judas Iscariot or anything by Steven Adly Guirgis.

Hurt Village is a pretty brutal one by Katori Hall that's worthy of a look. 

Booty Candy may be a bit too much, but hey, why not? 

And of interest, possibly, but possibly a stretch, is Jeff Talbot's 'The Submission.' Three white roles with one black woman, but the story is of a white guy entering a play competition and submitting it as a black woman, and it getting selected, and he having to keep up the facade in order to continue tasting success...Warped, pointed, funny, wrong, but some amazing scenes to work with, if you have the folk to do it. 

That's probably enough to go on, for now. Although, yeah, Raisin in the Sun may be overdone, consider dusting off a copy of the unfinished Les Blancs, by the same playwright. It still has such an explosive power even on the printed page, and might be interesting to look at for your students. Totally different side to Hansberry's writing, and as important as Raisin.

------------------------------
Phillip Goodchild
Theatre Arts Instructor

Etobicoke ON
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 06-25-2018 07:20
From: Heather Damron
Subject: scenes/plays for novice black actors

Next year, for the first time in my career, it looks like I'll have a high school drama I class made up almost entirely of black students (who seemed to have signed up en masse after having me in English class this past year). These are kids who have never been on stage or in a drama class before. So exciting!

 

Though almost everything I normally use for scene study would work fine with this group, I'm wondering if any of you can suggest plays that resonated with your black students in particular. 

Of course, we will look at August Wilson and at A Raisin in the Sun, but what's new? What's really hitting home with your black students these days?

Thanks!

---

This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited.

Hi, I teach playwriting in an MA/MFA program in creative writing. I've been dismayed by some of my black students' lack of knowledge about contemporary black playwrights. I love August Wilson's Fences, and Joe Turner's Come and Gone. However, I think you'd be doing these students a favor by searching out some of the more contemporary black playwrights. I second anything by Lynn Nottage, but especially Intimate Apparel and Ruined.    Top Dog/Underdog is a great two-hander if you have strong male roles. 

You might also be interested in some plays that are not as well known. There's an interesting post-civil war drama about a black family and color-consciousness called She'll Find Her Way Home by Valetta Anderson.  And Humans Remain by Robin Rice which has 7 black roles and 1 white--helpful if you also have an ethnic mix in your group. I'll see if I can think of more mixed-cast plays and get back to you.

And a big congratulations on how you must have taught your English class!  Well done. It's great to see students attracted to the theater. I'm sure they are going to have a great time in your class.

------------------------------
Jean Klein
[Playwright/Founder HaveScripts/BlueMoonPlays]
Virginia Beach VA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 06-25-2018 07:20
From: Heather Damron
Subject: scenes/plays for novice black actors

Next year, for the first time in my career, it looks like I'll have a high school drama I class made up almost entirely of black students (who seemed to have signed up en masse after having me in English class this past year). These are kids who have never been on stage or in a drama class before. So exciting!

 

Though almost everything I normally use for scene study would work fine with this group, I'm wondering if any of you can suggest plays that resonated with your black students in particular. 

Of course, we will look at August Wilson and at A Raisin in the Sun, but what's new? What's really hitting home with your black students these days?

Thanks!

---

This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited.

Just remembered an excellent scene that often worked well for my novice students of color: Black Thang. Can't remember the author, and I'm not sure if it's an entire work, but it's an incredibly comic scene that many of my beginning students had success with, and every pair that did it (it's 1F, 1M) brought something new and original to the performance.

------------------------------
Phillip Goodchild
Theatre Arts Instructor

Etobicoke ON
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 07-06-2018 09:16
From: Jean Klein
Subject: scenes/plays for novice black actors

Hi, I teach playwriting in an MA/MFA program in creative writing. I've been dismayed by some of my black students' lack of knowledge about contemporary black playwrights. I love August Wilson's Fences, and Joe Turner's Come and Gone. However, I think you'd be doing these students a favor by searching out some of the more contemporary black playwrights. I second anything by Lynn Nottage, but especially Intimate Apparel and Ruined.    Top Dog/Underdog is a great two-hander if you have strong male roles.

You might also be interested in some plays that are not as well known. There's an interesting post-civil war drama about a black family and color-consciousness called She'll Find Her Way Home by Valetta Anderson.  And Humans Remain by Robin Rice which has 7 black roles and 1 white--helpful if you also have an ethnic mix in your group. I'll see if I can think of more mixed-cast plays and get back to you.

And a big congratulations on how you must have taught your English class!  Well done. It's great to see students attracted to the theater. I'm sure they are going to have a great time in your class.

------------------------------
Jean Klein
[Playwright/Founder HaveScripts/BlueMoonPlays]
Virginia Beach VA

Original Message:
Sent: 06-25-2018 07:20
From: Heather Damron
Subject: scenes/plays for novice black actors

Next year, for the first time in my career, it looks like I'll have a high school drama I class made up almost entirely of black students (who seemed to have signed up en masse after having me in English class this past year). These are kids who have never been on stage or in a drama class before. So exciting!

 

Though almost everything I normally use for scene study would work fine with this group, I'm wondering if any of you can suggest plays that resonated with your black students in particular. 

Of course, we will look at August Wilson and at A Raisin in the Sun, but what's new? What's really hitting home with your black students these days?

Thanks!

---

This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited.